Abstract

Though an exotic species the cashewnut plant has gained a strong foothold in this country, especially along the coastal and submontane areas of the West Coast from the Cape in the South to almost as far as Bombay and in different parts of the Coromandel Coast. Due to great de- mand for the cashew kernels from outside countries, thousands of acres of waste land which have been left uncultivated till recently have been planted up with this tree and year after year new areas are planted up. This is a tree which is found to grow well in almost all kinds of soils, and especially in well drained rain led hill sides and the sandy coastal tracts; it begins to bear well and give a good return in about six to eight years. Prospective planters of this crop will, however, do well to bestow suffi- cient care and precaution towards the healthy growth of the tree free from diseases and pests to which this crop is frequently subjected. As the area under this crop is bound to increase year after year in proportion to the growing demand, the chances for pests and diseases to multiply are great, as has been the experience with crops like sugarcane and groundnut in S. India. While even in the case of several crops like those mentioned above, pests of minor importance in the old days have begun to assume the status of major pests, in perennial plants like mango, cashew or other trees such pests have greater chances of rapid multiplication and wider distribution when the area under the food plant increases rapidly and no attention is paid to these pests in the early stages. In this paper an attempt is made to give a brief account of the different insects associated with this plant, their bionomics as far as we know and a few suggestions towards their control.

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